


nobody knows you the way that i know you

by deandratb



Series: Maybe In Another Life [4]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-04 09:21:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16344122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deandratb/pseuds/deandratb
Summary: After her mugshot is published, Alice visits FP in jail. Set during "When A Stranger Calls," before the Open House.





	nobody knows you the way that i know you

**Author's Note:**

> Because I can't get over their past and neither can they...and I love a prelude for the way Alice greets FP when he's released.

"Hello, FP."

She sat carefully, tucking her glossy hair behind her ears and resting her hands in her lap. The shadows under her eyes were almost as dark as bruises beneath the buzzing track lighting.

“Alice Cooper.” FP looked her up and down, slowly, a hint of a smile underneath his stubble. “Coming here in the middle of the day like this. Aren’t you worried what people’ll say?”

It wasn’t her first time on either side of the bars, but FP was right--after he was cleared of Jason’s murder, Alice had been careful to visit only under cover of darkness, using the paper as an excuse.

None of that seemed worth the trouble anymore.

“Do you read the Blue and Gold in here?”

FP raised his eyebrows at the subject change. “The school newspaper? No.”

“They…” Alice swallowed hard, feeling the words catch in her throat. “They published my mugshot.”

“Your--” FP leaned back, laughing. “Your mugshot? From high school? Wow.”

“I’m not finding it especially funny.”

“Do you find anything funny anymore?”

Alice shrugged. “You’re in here. You tell me where I should be looking for the hilarity of life in Riverdale.”

“The town of pep and murder,” he agreed easily. “Still, you used to have fun. Apparently even the school paper knows that.”

“I used to be an idiot. My youthful indiscretions had nothing to do with having a sense of humor.”

“Agree to disagree,” FP said, letting it go. “Is that why you’re here? To revisit old times?”

“No.” Alice frowned. “I don’t really know why I’m here. I just...needed to talk to someone. Someone who might understand.”

“I haven’t understood you since you shed your skin and married **him**.”

She took the blow without flinching, though her eyes flashed as though she wanted to fight back. “But you were there. You knew me.”

“Thought I did.”

“You did,” she insisted quietly. “You always have.”

“And you’ve come for what--sympathy?”

“I don’t want your sympathy. I was in my car, on my way here, before I thought about what I was doing. As insane as I’m sure it sounds, I needed to see a friendly face. Why I came to you, of all people...I can’t explain it.”

“You don’t have to, Alice.” FP grinned. “Not like I’ve got anything better to do.”

“Me neither.”

“Don’t you have Cooper responsibilities to attend to? Or, I don’t know, raising hell for the Southside?”

“No.” Alice shook her head. “No, there’s a party tonight I was supposed to go to, but that's off the table now. I can’t show my face after the breaking news horror of the day.”

“Let me get this straight. You were going to play high society wife tonight, and instead you’re hiding out here with one of Riverdale’s most wanted?”

“It’s just a party. Hal has made it very clear that he doesn’t want me there...I can’t imagine anyone else does either.”

“Fuck what they want. You’re a snake who decided to live in a hornet’s nest, Alice--god knows why, but you did. None of them really care about you. It's time to stop caring about what they think.” FP pinned her with his gaze. “What do **you** want?”

She stared back, and he could practically see the clouds clear out of her blue eyes. Her smile was wicked.

“I want to show them all,” Alice said, punctuating her words with a decisive nod. “That none of their pity or their judgement can touch me. That I’m not feeling sorry for myself. Because I may have moved on from that era of my life, but I’m **not** sorry.”

“Atta girl.” FP clicked his tongue as he thought about it. “So you’ll go?”

“Hell, yes.” The fierceness lighting her up turned back the years on the wife and mother who breezed past him these days with her nose in the air. Alice looked like the girl he couldn't keep his hands off of, a million miles and twenty years ago.

“I wish I could be there.”

“That would be a bigger scandal than the disgraced crusader crashing the Northside soiree,” Alice told him. “But I wish you could too.”

“Yeah?”

“Just a little.” She smiled again, slowly. “I know exactly what I’m going to wear. And I think you’d appreciate it. More than they will.”

He chuckled. “You could always take a picture. Bring it by.”

She hadn’t come there to flirt with her ex. _Right?_ Alice shook her head, wiping the smile off her face. Clearly, she had stayed too long. “I don’t think that would be appropriate.”

“Neither is this. Appropriate would be keeping your problems in your family,” FP pointed out. “Letting your husband talk you off the ledge. But we both know that’s not Hal’s strong suit.”

“No.”

“Was he pissed? About the mugshot?”

She nodded, linking her fingers together on the other side of the plexiglass.

“It’s not like he didn’t know, Alice. Don’t let him push you around.”

“I can handle Hal. I kicked him out last year,” she admitted. “After Polly came back. He lived at the Register for a while. Things between us have been...rough.”

“Sounds like it. Well, you know I’ve seen worse. Gladys has a mean right hook.”

“Right.” Alice pursed her lips at the memory of his wife. There were only a few female Serpents during Alice’s reign, but the women who made it in were more vicious than the men. She and Gladys had clashed a few times before Alice moved across town. “Is she waiting for you, when you get out?”

“She’s got her own life in Toledo.” He tapped his hands against the surface of the table. “We always said we’d make it work again someday, but I can’t really see that anymore.”

“I understand.”

“Figured you might.”

“Since I came here and interrupted your routine for the free therapy,” Alice said with a smile, “how was your hearing? I know Jughead has been trying to secure your release.”

“He’s a stubborn kid. He convinced Cheryl Blossom to speak to the judge, though I think your daughter also had something to do with it. I’m just waiting to hear, now.”

Alice sighed. “Every time I turn around, Betty’s got herself mixed up in another mess.”

“Well, I’m grateful for her help. She takes after you.”

“Drawn to lost causes?”

He laughed. “I was gonna say, smart. Jug is a good match for her, that way. Even without trying, you were always light years ahead of me in class.”

“You’re smarter than you look.”

“Thanks. I think.” FP’s eyes flicked down to her mouth, and back up.

“I’m going to go now.”

“Yeah, sure. You’ve got a party to get ready for. Have fun,” he drawled as a smile softened his face.

There was a challenge buried in there somewhere, and an invitation.

“I’ll try,” Alice answered the first as she left. She decided to hold on to the second until he was free.

Maybe by then, they both would be.

**Author's Note:**

> Title borrowed from "Take On The World" by You Me At Six.


End file.
